Friends

This is my first time posting to AB, and really, my first bad experience with an artist entirely. I got a commission at Anthrocon 2009 (so, in July 2009) from Seel ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/seely ) for a badge. I paid $20. She told me later on during the con that she wouldn't be able to finish it there, and would mail it to me once she had finished it. I agreed to this.

In August, she sent me a note saying she was starting on it; that was the last contact I had with her. On November 29th, I sent her a note on FA asking about progress and she never replied to it. Then once again on December 10th, I sent her another note on FA, thinking something had gotten screwed up in the big downtime the site had through the week before, and maybe she hadn't received the note. She didn't respond to that. A week ago, December 30th, I sent her a note asking either for some sign of progress, or a refund. I still haven't gotten a reply from her, and she's submitted many things since the con. She's been fairly active recently, posting art and comments, and has yet to respond to my notes, effectively ignoring my overdue commission.

I don't know how else to get in contact with her, and I don't want to publicly post complaints on her page. At this point I just want my money refunded; she can forget about the badge.

Just thinking about speculative work and what opinion people have about doing it.

I'm not just talking about clients posting on places like DevArt anonymously asking for "samples" or setting up "competitions" but also having a client look at your art, dither about hiring you and then offering you the chance to compete with other artists by submitting work for a project and they'll pay the person whose work they like but not the other artists. Has anyone ever done such a thing in a rewarding way? Am I correct in my first reaction, which is to politely inform the person that I do not do speculative work? In most advice I've read for artists in the past, they warn again doing speculative work as many people use that as a way to get free art. And most of the advice I see around here is based on the concept of "some form of payment up front before any work is done."

Thoughts?

With the Syrae thread devolving into a copyright war of words, I figured it was time ask this question. I separated it from the Syrae thread since it might be useful for both artists and commissioners to take note of this discussion.

What are the rules of the land as far as commissioned artwork involving the commissioner's character(s)? I would assume that the commissioner has some recourse when dealing with works involving his/her characters, and the artist has some recourse available by default, but who has the final say as to who can do what with the finished product, in terms of alterations, etc? What kind of timeframe should a commissioner hold for approaching the artist for changes, and when would it be a DIY case?

I'm not talking about generic artwork commissions, I'm speaking of commissions involving characters whose "existence" predates the artwork being commissioned.

This might be a minor issue, and this is also my first post to this comm, but I just want to warn people of what they may be dealing with should they choose to commission Syrae Universe of Furcadia, FurAffinity and DeviantArt.

( "I'm Going to Fuckin Kill You"? Very Professional. )

I'm also curious as to whether or not this is even such a big deal-- There were no major details changed around, just the nose (which in my opinion shouldn't have even been pink in the first place) and the tail-tip, the latter of which Luke hadn't noticed until he'd already uploaded the port. I want to get a general consensus on the matter for future reference when commissioning other artists.


::EDIT:: Just uploaded the comparison of the before/after modified ports, for anyone who was wondering about the changes made.


::EDIT 2:: I managed to get the copy/pastes of the conversation Syrae and I had over IMs after I heard about her reaction to Luke-- My initial message to her, and the response that came afterwards. My last response to her was lost, as Syrae deleted my account from her website so I couldn't log in and access the inbox. Admittedly, in my original message I was a bit upset and that showed through alot of the passive-aggressiveness in my note, but here we go:


( TL;DR -- I'm kind of upset, apologize for what I did and explain my situation with hints of passive-aggressive rawr-iness and ask that Luke and I be removed from the dream's DS. Syrae ignores all of that. )

Contact Made, resolved.
Thanks to everyone who helped out.

Hello, this is not, at this time, a warning.. Rather I am looking for anyone who can help me get in touch with two suit makers...

I am looking for Darzi, AKA Sneezyweasels. I won an auction for a partial fursuit, all the details were worked out, money paid and e-mails coming and going just fine up until a certain point where she stopped responding to e-mails. She then made this post : http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1065601/ on her FA, to which I replied and also sent and e-mail a few days later after not getting a response on the journal. I got no reply. In a last ditch attempt I left a comment on both of her FA pages, to which I received an e-mail  response on Dec 18th stating I was accidentally put on her spam filter. I would assume once she realized that she would have fixed it. After responding to this e-mail and sending one other I have still not been able to get a reply from her.
 I really need to talk to her to either confirm her address to send some materials, or work out a refund and have the already done work posted to me so I can get someone else to finish it if she is having this much trouble keeping up with her customers. I really want to see this project through, as I love her work, it has so much personality.. But I cannot keep hanging out to a hope, being ignored while she favorites pictures on Furaffinity. If you have time to look at other people's art and fave it then you have time to reply to an e-mail.


  The second suitmaker I am looking for is Zim Gekko, AKA Space Mutt, CritterIsland, or Zagar.

Space Mutt has also been actively faving pictures on FA, has even posted a picture recently, and still has not found time to reply to an e-mail. I've also been told that they have been active on their personal LJ. The last I heard from them was on October 27th, when I was told that progress pictures would be given. I have tried not to be bothersome about it.. but my last two e-mails have been completely ignored while they still fave and post on FA. I really just want to know what is going on with my suit, to see some sort of progress.. just.. something. 


If anyone knows how to get in touch with Darzi or Spacemutt, other than the e-mail they generally provide then it would be much appreciated. I apologize for the inconvenience, I am just really at the end of my rope and don't know what else to do. I've dropped a lot of money on both projects and am just tired of being left hanging, not knowing what's going on and not being able to get a response to my inquiries.

Thank you all in advance.

This is the first time I've ever felt compelled to post here, and basically wanted to ask for advice before I went and made a formal posting. I've commissioned an artist back in August of 2009 (got the final details worked out, payment 1 of 3 sent, 'officially' got the ball rolling - I was trying since January to get the details hammered out to get to that point) for a picture. I am being generally vague as I am just providing background.

Anyway, the first two months roll by, and I send a status update query to her - just to see if there was something holding her up from making any progress on a preliminary sketch, get told that she had some personal things happen in her life, but was going to get the prelim done for me within a week, so I felt satisfied enough to send the second part of the payment, figuring it would only be a few days before I saw a rough draft. Another month passes, so I send another status update query, get told that she has been busy with school and life in general, but would get on it soon. Come December, send her another status update query, get told that the holidays are around, but come student break she would bang out the commission, sorry about taking so long. Get to about Christmas time, contact her to make sure she has the right address, and that she doesn't need anything in case she might have lost any of my references, or any of the descriptions (it has been, after all, quite a while since a description was written or address was given - and at least four months since the official gears on the project started turning). Got a reply that she felt guilty - would finish it by Christmas.

Now, here we are at the 30th, and I have not seen even the roughest of rough pencil sketches - so I am wondering if I've been had here, did I do something wrong, or do I just simply got to give it more time? In the past, I have commissioned other artists and the work has usually been done in a timely fashion or I knew ahead of time it was going to take a while. I'll be the first to admit that I can't expect someone to work through a family emergency, school assignments, or the like - that's just not fair, reasonable, or very nice. I guess I am just worried that the climate of commissioning has changed and I am behind the times.

So two years ago I commissioned Paiseley (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/paiseley) for several sketches to be paid upon completion. A year passed without seeing anything, and she posted asking for commissions or donations, and I reminded her about the commission and offered to pay if she would follow up with the art. $50 and a year later nothing to show for it. So I asked for a refund. Now four or five months later I haven't seen anything for my efforts except a lot of people posting shouts to her FA page saying that they too are owed refunds or massively late commissions.

Does anyone know what the heck is up with her? Has she vanished with other peoples' and my money? I mean it has been over two freaking -years- now since I commissioned her, and months and months since asking for a refund and now there's a flood of people in the same situation as me.

Edit: Her old LJ was purged and deleted, but someone just pointed me to her new LJ for contact purpose http://thatgirlmitch.livejournal.com/

Edit2: Twitter account under the same name http://twitter.com/thatgirlmitch , including tweets about buying a new car this past month. Clearly financial problems prevent giving refunds to multiple people...

Edit3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iba8dDpLyVc and she can't afford to give refunds, but she can buy tickets to see the Bosstones, their new album, and plane tickets to go fly to their show at the Boston House of Blues.

Edit4: I was given her contact info and called her tonight and left a voice mail about the commission. She texted me back saying she had no idea who I was or how I got her number and never to contact her again. I texted back with details and got a "Do Not Contact Me Again" as a reply. Trash.

Dispite some heavy drama heaped on me. I believe the issue between myself and cureineko has been for the most part "resolved"

I'm getting a refund, she's moving on with her life, I'm moving on with mine.

I really did hate having to post about her here as she truely is a nice person and didn't deserve alot of the "flack" she got from a few individuals on the last posting (myself included)

If it's possible I would like to erase the previous journal about it and move on. Is that allowed?